MIDTERM- CH 2

Question 1

Respiratory System:

Answer 1

Includes lungs, airway, rib cage, diaphragm.

Provides the air supply for sound generation.

Question 2

Larynx:

Answer 2

Composed of cartilages and muscles.

Generates voiced sounds through vocal fold vibration; regulates airflow for voiceless sounds.

Question 3

Tongue:

Answer 3

Principal articulator, capable of various shapes/positions.

Divided into five parts: tip, blade, back, root, body

Question 3

Velopharynx:

Answer 3

Includes the soft palate (velum) and velopharyngeal port.

Controls airflow between oral and nasal cavities.

Question 4

Airflow Types:

Answer 4

Pulses for voiced sounds (e.g., “buzz”).

Continuous flow for voiceless sounds (e.g., “s” in “see”).

Question 4

Voiced vowels primarily defined by three major class features:

Answer 4

sonorant, vocalic, and consonantal.

Question 4

Nervous System Control: controls the entire process)

Answer 4

Coordinates muscle contractions for speech production

Timing of contractions is critical; errors can lead to misarticulation

Question 4

Lips and Jaw:

Answer 4

Most visible articulators, involved in vowel and consonant production.

Jaw supports the tongue and lower lip movements.

Question 4

Speech Production Understanding:

Answer 4

Involves phonology, articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and speech perception.

Discrete linguistic units (like phonemes) relate to muscle contractions for speech.

Question 4

Vocal Tract: (upper airway)

Answer 4

Flexible tube from larynx to mouth/nose, shaped by articulator movements (speech articulation)

Question 4

Distinctive Features:

Answer 4

A set of binary features used to describe phonemes across all languages.

Example: Nasality, which can be +nasal (nasal sound) or −nasal (non-nasal sound).

Question 5

Sonorant Sounds:

Answer 5

Produced with an open vocal cavity allowing spontaneous voicing.

Nonsonorants (obstruents) require special mechanisms for voicing

Question 6

Vocalic Sounds:

Answer 6

Produced with oral cavity shapes that allow for spontaneous voicing without exceeding constriction levels of high vowels.

Question 7

Consonantal Sounds:

Answer 7

Defined by definite constriction in the midsagittal region of the vocal tract; vowels are

-consonantal.

Question 8

Tongue body Features:

Answer 8

Vowels distinguished by size/configuration of the resonating cavity.

High sounds: tongue raised; low sounds: tongue lowered; back sounds: tongue retracted.

Rounded sounds: lips protruded; nonrounded sounds: lips not protruded.

Question 9

Nasal sounds:

Answer 9

lowered velum allows sound through the nose.

Question 10

Tense vowels:

Answer 10

produced with greater muscular effort (e.g., /i/, /u/).

Question 11

Nontense vowels:

Answer 11

produced with less effort (e.g., /ɪ/, /ʊ/).

Question 12

Suprasegmentals:

Answer 12

characteristics of speech that involve larger units such as syllables, words, phrases, or sentences (prosodic features)

Question 13

Stress

Answer 13

the degree of effort, prominence or importance given to some part of an utterance

Question 14

Intonation

Answer 14

the vocal pitch contour of an utterance; the way the fundamental frequency changes from syllable and even from segment to segment

Question 15

Loudness

Answer 15

related to sound intensity or the amount of vocal effort used

Question 16

Pitch level:

Answer 16

average pitch a speaker’s voice (high, low, medium)

Question 17

Juncture

Answer 17

combo of intonation, pausing, and others to mark special distinctions in speech (lets eat grandma vs. Lets eat grandma!)

Question 18

Speaking rate:

Answer 18

measured in words per second, syllables per second, or phonemes per second. As rate increases, segment durations become shorter

Question 19

Clear speech

Answer 19

what speakers use when they are trying to be as intelligible as possible

-Slower
-More likely to avoid modified or reduced forms of consonant and vowel segments
-Characterized by greater intensity of obstruent sounds

Question 20

Coarticulation

Answer 20

Interaction between sounds during speech production, where the articulation of one sound is influenced by preceding or following sounds.

Question 21

Retentive Coarticulation:

Answer 21

Articulatory features are retained after their required appearance (e.g., nasalization in “me” from /m/).

Question 22

Phonetic Context:

Answer 22

Variations in sounds based on surrounding phonemes, affecting properties like point of closure (e.g., /k/ sounds in different words).

Question 23

Assimilation

Answer 23

A feature from one segment may be adopted by an adjacent segment, making speech production easier and faster.

Question 24

Allophonic Variation:

Answer 24

Context-dependent variations in sounds, influenced by place of articulation, voicing, and other factors.

Question 25

Overlapping Articulations:

Answer 25

Consonants in clusters can overlap in their articulation, reducing overall duration and enhancing fluency.

Question 26

Degrees of Restriction:

Answer 26

Certain consonants restrict the movement of articulators more than others, impacting coarticulation.

Question 27

speech relies on….

Answer 27

supply and valving of air; abnormalities in these can cause speech issues

Question 28

english speech sounds are _____

Answer 28

EGRESSIVE: air flows from the lungs to the outside environment

Question 29

frequency

Answer 29

rate of vibration; correlates with pitch

Question 30

amplitude

Answer 30

strength of vibration; correlates with loudness

Question 31

duration

Answer 31

total time of vibration; correlates with perceived length

Question 32

tactile

Answer 32

involves touch and pressure

Question 33

proprioceptive

Answer 33

relates to position sense

Question 34

kinesthetic

Answer 34

movement sense

Question 35

levels of organization of speech

Answer 35

Begins with the syllable and moves down to the acoustic sequence visible on a spectrogram.
Phonemes are abstract; their phonetic representations include allophones (e.g., /p/ is aspirated [ph] in syllable-initial position, /ɑ/ is lengthened [ɑ:] in open monosyllables).

Question 36

Speech involves three major components:

Answer 36

Segmental Component: Words, syllables, phonemes, features.

Suprasegmental (Prosodic) Component: Stress, intonation, loudness, pitch.

Paralinguistic Component: Emotion, attitude, tension, voice quality.